Bloggers Persuade VA to Cut Emergency GI Bill Checks

By Terry Howell

In an unprecedented response to the hardships caused by delayed Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments, the VA decided to make emergency payments of up to $3,000 to veterans who are still waiting for their benefits to kick in.

Based on the timing of the VA announcement, it appears the emergency payments are a direct response to an issue surfaced during the VA’s first ‘Bloggers Roundtable’ last week. During the meeting, Assistant VA Secretary Tammy Duckworth and Deputy Director of Education Services, Lynn Nelson were asked what the VA is going to do about the financial hardships veterans are experiencing due to not receiving their benefits. You could have heard a pin drop as neither was able to provide an answer.

But within 24 hours of the blogger event, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs announced the emergency benefit payment plan. The VA was obviously compelled by the blogger’s questions and personalized examples of hardship.

According to the VA press release, eligible students will be able go to one of VA’s 57 regional benefit offices with a photo ID and a course schedule to request advance payment of their housing and book allowance starting Oct. 2, 2009.

Since many students are not located near VA Regional Offices, VA is planning to send representatives to schools with large Veteran-student populations and work with Veteran Service Organizations to help students with transportation needs.

A list of VA regional offices is available at www.vba.va.gov/VBA/benefits/offices.asp.

As with anything the Federal Government attempts, the emergency payment process will be far from simple. Here are a couple of things to be aware of as the VA works out the payment details:

• The emergency payment process is a work in progress. 
• The VA plans to provide updated application/payment information as soon as possible.
• VA is still examining alternative options for delivering the emergency payments.

The VA's willingness to cut emergency payments (advances on benefits) is very encouraging and shows a new direction for VA's relationship with the veteran community.

Check out the Emergency Advance Payment FAQs to learn more.

See what veterans are saying about the effects of the GI Bill benefit delays.

Read the official VA Press Release posted on Military.com.

Comments

[auto insurance quotes]

I wouldn't trust these VA advance payments. I did all the math and it won't work in my favor. If I take the advance pay I won't see another payment until January 2010, considering it will take 2 1/2 months to catch up. No thanks I'll do best to be patient and wait.

[onitap]

while I do agree that the all process should not take that long, in the same time we all got to understand that it was a bunch of people thrown in there with no idea of how to do the paperwork, and are learning because not everybody is as simple to do but i do support the idea about that this is the first time complaining actually got us somewhere lets just be respectful.

what i really dont understand is if we have to submit some kind of paper work to get the housing allowance or is it gonna be automatic... any answers?

[Barbara]

Can anyone tell me if the application online will be accepted for the advance payment? My son is a full time student presently abroad with his university. He filled out the app online about 2 weeks ago. We are under the impression a check will be mailed to him at home. There is no way he can get to a VA office. He was contacted by the school and told he is on "finacial suspension".

[MSG(Ret) Bruce Blankley]

This is interesting and the only way I heard about the delay problems and a temporary solution. I applied like everyone else who was eligible right at 1August and all I have gotten is three form letters(identical)over the last three months that said that there would be a "delay" in processing my request due to the overwhelming number of applicants. Good thing I did not register for fall semester based on receiving my GI Bill benefits.
MSG(Ret) Bruce Blankley
OEF 2003-2005

[Vigilant]

The new GI Bill is intended to pay the cost of tuition and fees of eligible persons. The amounts payable are capped by the highest in-state undergraduate tuition rate and the highest in-state undergraduate fee rate. A person’s eligibility rate (based on length of active service) also determines the maximum amount payable. VA currently assesses the tuition and fees as separate amounts. For example, if one’s tuition is charged at a rate of $60/credit for 12 credits, the VA will pay only $60/credit. Additionally, if that student is charged $700 in fees, VA will pay only $700. That totals $1,420 in VA payments, which covers 100% of that student’s education costs. Now consider the cost of education at an independent institution. Let’s arbitrarily say a veteran enrolled in 12 credits is charged $10,000 in tuition and $250 in fees. Since the maximum rate for tuition is $60/credit, VA will pay $720 in tuition and $250 in fees, for a grand total of $970.

My opinion is that Public Law 110-252, Title V, sets a higher payment rate. Section 3313(c)(1)(A), Section 3317, and Section 3313(h) outline the basis of my position. I believe that the new GI Bill was intended to pay, either, the actual cost OR the maximum payment allowable. In fact, that's what the legislation says. If that were the case, then let's say a state's most expensive program amounts to $15,000 in tuition and fees. A 100%-eligible veteran who’s charged $3,500 in tuition and fees would be totally covered under the new GI Bill. But, a veteran who’s charged $20,000 in tuition and fees would be covered up to around $15,000 in VA payments. This payment method is what VA originally communicated to veterans advocacy groups and the academic community after the bill was passed.

--Don't Tolerate This Separation of Tuition and Fees B.S.
Go to the Q&A section on www.gibill.va.gov, and look up Answer IDs 927 and 932. In those examples, VA does not separate tuition and fees, but treats the actual costs as one amount. Instead, VA now looks at the maximum tuition, and pays up to that amount. Going to Harvard? Where your tuition might cost you $18K per semester? Well, you're only going to get $330/credit, so enroll in 12 credits that's only $3,960. Fees are minimal, usually around $1,500 or so. So in total, VA will only pay you $5,460 for a $18K bill! But, if they didn't muck up the interpretation of the law, you'd actually get around $17K+ from the VA.

Wake up, veterans! Read the legislation. Know your rights and know what you're supposed to have earned! Here's a link: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ252.110.pdf. This knowledge is power, and we can have our benefits restored to what Congress originally intended.

[statia cooper]

I am a veteran whos benefits happen to cut off a couple of months after the approval of the 911 came into law. Shouldn't I still be entitle to the difference especially since i'm still in school? I have emailed and mailed letters plus call and the reply on all is you have met your months so you are not entitled. I am not understanding I was still entitled to the my amount and it seems they have made adjustments to others and not myself. Can someone provide guidance on who I should talk to about this.
THanks
Statia Cooper
Navy Veteran

[One Eyed WIllie Roscoe Jenkins]

Ebony,
Epic fail

[Ebony]

Everybody just need to be patience. I know it's hard when you are going through financial struggles. But just think how the VA employees are feeling. They just had this New GI Bill drop in their lap last year. Just think how many of our fellow and new soldiers are processing claims. You know alot of soldiers problem didn't even pay into the old gi bill but can't reap these new gi bill benefits. Just think about all the claims out their.

[PL427]

We all know that the VA needs a major over hall. I'm even afraid, as a Veteran to go in there to die.

It strikes me as amazing that people actually want the Gov't to run their Health Care with a record like that. I certainly don't...

[One Eyed WIllie Roscoe Jenkins]

I wouldn't trust these VA advance payments. I did all the math and it won't work in my favor. If I take the advance pay I won't see another payment until January 2010, considering it will take 2 1/2 months to catch up. No thanks I'll do best to be patient and wait.

[Terry Howell]

Chris - Another way yo get the same results would be to visit the Military.com GI Bill Calulator at: http://www.military.com/gi-bill-calculator/.

Hope that helps.

[Chris]

I think the Secretary's heart is in the right place, but I would prefer if he'd address the real issue instead of trying to throw together a quick fix plan while the Department of Veterans Affairs gets its act together with speeding up the processing of these Post 9/11 GI Bills.

What I can't seem to wrap my head around is how it could possibly take an hour to two hours to determine someone's eligibility and then determine the benefits they're authorized to receive.

I was able to determine all that information for myself with some quick Google queries; I don't even have access to the same documentation they do!

Query 1 - "Mississippi State University Zip Code" yielded 39762.
Query 2 - "BAH by zip code", leads straight to this website - http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/perdiem/bah.html Type in the zip code from Query 1, select E-5, press 'Execute', yields $891 with dependents, that's my housing allowance.
Query 3 - "Highest tuition in Mississippi public" - second link - http://www.gibill.va.gov/gi_bill_info/ch33/tuition_and_fees.htm Straight from the VA's own web site, $449 per credit hour, 12 credit hours x $449 = $5388, so that's the max I can get. I'm attending Mississippi State University; their tuition is $2725 per semester for 12 hours and higher, its a flat rate, so that tells the VA to pay me $2725, plus fees. The college can submit that information to them.

Book allowance gets paid out at around $41 or so per credit hour, I'm taking 17 hours this semester, that's 17 x $41 = $697 for books this semester, leaving me $303 for next semester.

My official records *should*, I repeat *should* be electronic. If our government isn't working off almost purely electronic record keeping by 2009, then we're in a sad state of affairs ladies and gents.

How long did it take me to pull all this data together? 12 minutes.

How long should it take someone at the VA to do this? About the same, because all the damn data should be RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM! We have to submit tons of paperwork to get this benefit in the first place.

HOW IT *SHOULD* WORK:

VA Employee sits down at computer, logs in to the network.
VA Employee grabs my GI Bill application file from a stack on his / her desk.
VA Employee enters my name / social whatever he / she needs to, into the computer. My record comes up.
VA Employee looks at my active duty service, sees I'm over 36 months. Should realize then and there without doing any 'calculations' that I'm eligible for 100% on all benefits.
VA Employee then looks through all my school paperwork, brings up Mississippi State University, sees they charge a flat rate for tuition regardless of hours, as long as you're over 12 as an undergrad. He / she will already know I'm an undergrad because that'll be listed on the paperwork he read over... right? RIGHT? He DID read it over right? Let's hope so...

I really can't figure out how this whole process should take more than 15 to 30 minutes, tops... unless our jackass government is trying to over complicate the process for these poor workers. Figuring out how much money to give someone shouldn't make someone feel like they're trying to finish a Calculus 4 problem.

Bottom line - this $3000 advance is nice, and a godsend for some, but it does *NOT* address the real issue - the Department of Veterans Affairs dropped the ball, and it needs to be picked up and carried post-haste.

[Upset Vet]

This whole cut a check thing is going to be one huge cluster on Friday. I called the VA today and they have no idea how it's even going to work. Sure you can get up to 3000 dollars but what about the rest of they money you are oweded ? Furthermore today the VA says you'll be notified by mail when all of your paperwork has been processed.

[ohpleasebetrue]

Man, I hope this is true i'd love to be able to provide something other then a bounced check for my bills.

[Matt]

This couldn't of happened any later than Friday.. I am so relieved.. Just a little bummed that I will have to drive 200 miles to get my check..With all things considered, I am very greatfull.. This will be the first time complaining actually got us anywhere..